British teenager ‘plotted new Columbine massacre with guns and explosives’

A teenager assembled an arsenal of guns, bombs and homemade explosives alongside a plan to stage a “new Columbine”, the Old Bailey heard today.

Police found a notebook containing plans and tactics to terrorise pupils and staff at a school he had a grudge against, the jury was told.

Columbine is the Colorado school where two ex-students shot dead 12 teachers and pupils and injured many more before killing themselves in 1999, the court heard.

The 17-year-old is also said to have drawn up a list of targets including his local mosque, cinema, university and council offices.

The notebook’s cover had a picture of Che Guevara, Nazi swastikas and the words “EDL no surrender” and “British and proud.”

In a raid on his home in February police found guns, partially assembled petrol bombs, pipe bombs and components for improvised explosives, the court heard.

He is also said to have had a copy of the Mujahadeen Poisons Handbook, but the jury was told this was not necessarily connected to the “Columbine” attack.

Prosecutor Max Hill QC told jurors they would have to decide whether the teenager – who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome – was “a misfit or something altogether more sinister and serious.”

The question was whether it was right to describe him “as a would-be terrorist, happily stopped before he could go any further?” said the QC.

Did he have “a plan or intention either to terrorise pupils or staff at (the school) against whom he bore a grudge or to target (the) other locations?”

The boy, from Loughborough, Leicestershire who cannot be named because of his young age, has pleaded not guilty to two counts under the Terrorism Act and an explosives charge.

He, and two friends also aged 17, have pleaded guilty to possessing the petrol and pipe bombs.

The haul at his house is alleged to have also included a stab-proof vest, gas mask and a crossbow.

Police also found videos made by the teenager and his two friends.

There were recordings too, dating from August 2012 when the boy was 16, in which he talks of “doing some tests” on explosives “so I know what is easiest to make most effective and reliable”.

He went on: “I think I’m going to make a pipe bomb ‘cause they sound pretty easy.”

He complained about the way he had been treated. “That’s what drives people to do this,” he says.

“Look at all the f****** things in the past, at that you know, Columbine, Virginia Tech, number of others. All because of bullying and how people are treated.”

In his notebook the teenager writes about the “Islamic invasion of Europe” which had to be dealt with before it was “too late.” He speaks of four Muslim children born in Luton for every British one, the court heard. He claims to be a member of the English Defence League’s Leicester branch, supports the Knights Templar and advocates the British and Europeans rising up to fight the “Islamic Fascism sweeping the world”. The defendant has pleaded not guilty to possessing articles for use in an act of terrorism, possessing a document likely to be of use to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism and possessing the component parts of improvised explosive devices.